Model‐Based Software Testing

Abstract

There is an abundance of testing styles in the discipline of software engineering today. Over the last few decades, many of these have come to be used and adopted by the industry as solutions to address the increasing demand for assuring software quality. Since 1990 or so, perhaps as an outcome of the popularization of object orientation and models in software engineering, there has been a growth in black-box testing techniques that are collectively dubbed model-based testing. Model-based testing (MBT) is a general term that signifies an approach that bases common testing tasks such as test case generation and test result evaluation [see Jorgensen (1995) for some of these basic terms and concepts] on a model of the application under test.This generic definition is probably the least general statement that can be made about MBT. One of the striking issues about MBT is the nonstandard lingo that reflects a diversity of philosophies and models. Another issue that one will eventually realize in studying this set of techniques is that the models and techniques have yet to travel the long course to maturity. Disregarding these concerns, model-based techniques have gained the attention of practitioners and theoreticians alike. The wealth of published work portraying case studies in both academic and industrial settings is a sign of the newfound interest in this youthful branch of testing.Model-based techniques have substantial appeal. The first sign of potential are studies showing that testing a variety of applications has been met with success when MBT was employed. This article discussed what a model is and gives some models that have been useful for testing. Information given or choosing a module, building it, and testing it, The present and future status of model-based software testing is detailed.